Making Homemade Coconut Milk from Fresh Coconuts

• For those who might want to try preparing coconut milk at home, the following provides instructions for doing so.
  
• Pierce the eyes of a fresh coconut, drain the liquid inside and place the coconut on a rack and bake in a 325F pre-heated oven for about 30 minutes.
  
• Remove the coconut from the oven, let it cool a bit and crack it with a hammer so that the shell breaks into several pieces.
  
• Remove all the coconut meat from the shell, peel off the brown skin and cut the meat into very small cubes.
  
• If you have a coconut knife and grater, then you may take the fresh coconut, open it and grate the meat without using any heat. This takes the place of the first 4 steps.
  
• Place the meat in a blender, add hot water (include the coconut water from the center of the coconut for increased flavor and nutrition). Only add enough liquid to cover all of the meat. Blend until finely pureed. The less liquid you add the thicker and richer your milk will be.
  
• Place a sieve covered with cheese cloth over a bowl and pour the coconut meat and water into the sieve squeezing handfuls of the coconut meat. Extract as much liquid as possible into the bowl. The harder you press the more milk you will be able to remove. If you are going to use the milk in a curry you may want to just use the blended, non-strained milk. It is thicker than strained milk, white and “coconuty”. The plus to using the entire concotion is that it still contains all the fiber.
  
• Discard the squeezed coconut meat or use it in your favorite dish.
  
• Refrigerate the coconut milk that has been extracted. This delicious coconut milk should be used within 1 or 2 days. If you cannot use it that quickly, freeze it in ice cube trays to use later in smoothies, exotic drinks, and other dishes.
  
• You may also want to culture this fresh coconut milk just as you would culture the cow’s milk or cream. For a good culture to do this check out our Kefir culture.